Statement from Muhammad Ali:
"I am a Muslim. I am an American. As an American Muslim, I want to express
my deep sadness and anguish at the tremendous loss of life that occurred
on Tuesday.
Islam is a religion of peace. Islam does not promote terrorism or the
killing of people.
I cannot sit by and let the world think that Islam is a killing religion.
It hurts me to see what radical people are doing in the name of Islam.
These radicals are doing things that God is against. Muslims do not
believe in violence.
If the culprits are Muslim, they have twisted the teachings of Islam.
Whoever performed, or is behind, the terrorist attacks in the United
States of America does not represent Islam. God is not behind assassins.
Anyone involved in this must pay for their evil.
I pray that God blesses the people and families of those who were killed,
and our great country."
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Statement from Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens):
"I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist
attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday.
While it is still not clear who carried out the attacks, it must be stated
that no right thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an
action: the Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the
murder of the whole of humanity.
We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this
unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to
reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose
sympathies go out to the victims at this sorrowful moment."
=========================================
Hakeem a true face of Islam
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle
Word came in a morning phone call and in the moment it took to digest the
horror, to reach for the remote control and hit the power switch on the
TV, there was time for a quick prayer and a singular hope.
"Please," Hakeem Olajuwon said to himself. "Don't let them be Muslims."
In a community as large and diverse as Houston, for years his has been the
most recognizable face of Islam. A gentleman warrior on the basketball
court, a soft-spoken man of peace off it, Olajuwon never has proselytized
on religion, yet never backed down from an opportunity to share the tenets
of his abiding faith.
Love. Respect. Civility. Responsibility.
But there, in barely an hour before his shocked and disbelieving eyes,
were images and news reports that could do a different kind of damage, yet
just as insidious, as the terrorist raid.
"My reaction, beyond the sadness for the lives that were lost, is that
this is a very big setback for us," Olajuwon said. "The Muslims in America
are now the images of the crime and this fulfills the stereotype.
"It puts us in a very bad position, all the way back to almost the
beginning, to having to explain to a country where we are still in the
great minority that the actions of a few cannot be allowed to represent
all Muslims."
They are 19 faces of suicidal ideologues who can suddenly come to stand
for death and destruction in the name of Islam. They are lethal, guileful
fanatics such as Osama bin Laden and his followers, who can twist the
foundation of the second-most widely practiced religion in the world into
something incomprehensible and obscene.
There have been reports of vandalism at mosques in the aftermath of the
tragedy as tension and a desire for revenge grow. So, too, do the fears of
Muslims to go out in public.
"Please, don't put us all together with them," Olajuwon said. "Not only is
it unfair, but it would be incorrect. Look at the bombing in Oklahoma
City. It was committed by someone who would represent himself to be a
Christian. But we do not blame that act on Christianity.
"We are part of the same community. We have been exposed to the same
danger. There were Muslims who were killed inside the World Trade Center.
There were Muslim firefighters who died trying to save people.
"We feel the same concern. We share the same compassion and frustration
and feelings. You cannot be a decent human being and not have those same
feelings."
His celebrity over 20 years in our midst makes him familiar,
nonthreatening. But that is not the case with his friends and neighbors
and relatives in Islam.
"That is more reason why we must be out in public, letting the world see
that we are hurting too," Olajuwon said. "This is a crime against us. We
are raising funds for the victims. It is our responsibility."
He starts to say he is just like the rest of us, then catches himself and
laughs. After all, Olajuwon is one of us, a naturalized American citizen
since 1995, and there are second- and third-generation Muslims who are as
American as Yankee Doodle Dandy.
"There are no secrets," he said. "Islam is an open book, nothing to hide.
It is all there in the Koran, the ways to follow the prophet Mohammed, to
help individuals lift themselves to a moral level, to be the best citizen.
"The Koran has rules to follow, even in a time of war. The soldiers fight.
But there is no killing of children or women or civilians. That's why this
was not done in the same of Islam."
Olajuwon cringes, too, at the term "Islamic fundamentalist."
"Fundamentals are the basics, the foundation," he said. "The five pillars
of Islam are to recognize God as supreme, to pray five times a day, to
fast during the holy month of Ramadan, to give charity to the poor and to
visit the holy city of Mecca.
"How do these fundamentals translate to terrorism? These are not
fundamentalists. They are extremists. This is politics and we must
separate it from the practice of being a Muslim. Islam is not a threat. It
is a value system that teaches a higher level in character and dignity. It
does not make you an animal, a barbarian."
He watched the memorial prayer service from Washington, D.C., on
television, listened to the words of the Muslim imam, the Jewish rabbi,
the Catholic priest, the Protestant minister.
"I heard the same message," Hakeem Olajuwon said. "We are in this
together."